著者

平石(稲木) 妙子 Taeko Inagi Hiraishi

雑誌

共立国際研究 : 共立女子大学国際学部紀要 = The Kyoritsu journal of international studies

巻号頁・発行日

vol.32, pp.111-122, 2015-03

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the Issei fathers in Hisaye Yamamoto's two stories, "The Brown House" and "Las Vegas Charlie." In her stories, Yamamoto dramatizes the struggles of Issei fathers and mothers in her earlier stories. The Issei mothers are the victims of their Issei husbands, who repress their wives with traditional Japanese gender codes. Yamamoto describes such Issei males with irony and sometimes with derision, while she shows her compassion for the unfruitful rebellion of the Issei women.However, it should be noted that Yamamoto shows a different view of Issei fathers in "The Brown House" and "Las Vegas Charlie." The two stories are similar in the way they depict the male protagonists. They are compulsive gamblers and become losers. In addition to that, instead of using a sensitive girl as she does in her earlier stories, Yamamoto adopts a narratie voice, which is objective and detached, in the two stories. With the use of such a narrative style, she reveals that the decline of the two fathers is caused not only by their inner weakness but also by the social marginalizationcaused by racial prejudice and discrimination against Japanese immigrants. Particulaly in "Las Vegas Charlie," Yamamoto reveals that the internment during the WWII was an utter blow to the Issei by summarizing the entire span of the Issei history into the 1950s.It is often pointed out that father figures in the stories of Yamamoto are normally presented in a negative light, but reading "The Brown House" and "Las Vegas Charlie" will lead us to recognize that Yamamoto's view of Issei fathers is not always critical and ironical but more complicated and ambivalent.